Since the beginning of Facebook and Instagram every year the amount of social media crimes is rising. For the last three year the number of crimes in Twitter jumped three times, there were 174 cases reported in 2011 and 852 in 2013. At the same time there are thousands of similar cases that are not even reported.
The number of reports involving Facebook is even bigger, their percentage is 25 percent higher for 2013 and there are 12,803 cases for the last year. Many new social media platforms are becoming popular: Instagram, SnapChat, Flickr etc. There are giving more and more possibilities for every user with bad intentions.
All these statistics shows that unless something is changed these numbers are only going to grow and every year more and more people are going to be harmed. The law enforcement is giving more attention to the online related crimes, but bearing in mind that billions of people are using internet every month there is a lot more to be done.
Perhaps the easiest way to protect the majority of internet users is to educate them, to give them information and expert advice how to prevent their implication with cyberbullying, identity thefts and similar crimes related to the media.
There is only one sure thing, the future of the crimes is not on the streets, but online.